Ex-Utah State player Torrey Green charged with sexual assault

SALT LAKE CITY -- A former Utah State football player who was dropped by the Atlanta Falcons in August over multiple sexual assault allegations was charged Thursday with rape, assault and kidnapping.

The Cache County Attorney's Office filed charges against Torrey Green, 22, after spending several months re-reviewing allegations that multiple women made against Green during his time at Utah State.

Green now faces four separate rape charges and charges of aggravated kidnapping and forcible sexual abuse over allegations dating from 2013 through this year.

Green was arrested Thursday in California and will be extradited to Utah to face the charges, the county attorney's office said in a statement.

He did not have a listed attorney, and his spokesman Zack Teperman declined to comment Thursday. No number was listed for Green to reach him for comment.

After the county attorney's office confirmed the investigation in August, Teperman said Green believed he would be found innocent.

The county attorney's office said it was reviewing the matter this summer after The Salt Lake Tribune reported the allegations in July and that several of the investigations against Green had been closed. Green was not named in the Tribune's original story in July but gave the paper an interview where he denied the allegations, saying they had been blown out of proportion and that everyone makes mistakes.

When news of the allegations broke in August, the Falcons dropped Green, a rookie free agent linebacker.

Cache County District Attorney James Swink did not return a message Thursday seeking more details about the charges but said in a statement that his office investigated nine separate cases against Green.

Utah State said this summer that it would look at how the school handled allegations in the Green case while it was undergoing a broader review of the way the university investigates sexual assault.

Citing confidentiality rules, the school has declined to say when it first learned of allegations against Green, some of which were lodged by fellow students, or any specifics about how the allegations were investigated.

In a statement in late August, the school said it generally found no victims were discouraged from reporting an assault or pursuing an investigation and no athletes received special treatment. The school said it would work to improve its reporting policies and communication with local police.

The school also recently began posting ads around campus designed to inform students about what exactly constitutes consensual sex.

Utah State spokesman Tim Vitale said Thursday that the school has cooperated with law enforcement and Utah State police worked with the other investigators.

The Herald Journal in Logan first reported the charges Thursday.

Green, who is from Rubidoux, California, graduated from Utah State this spring.